The noise of the machine … 5 Seconds of Summer.
Photograph: Tony Mott/EMI

5 Seconds of Summer: 'Not cool enough?... I mean, what is that about?'

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There’s no shortage of full-throttle enthusiasm on 5SOS’s latest album – all walloping drums and boisterous pop-punk – and yet the noise of the machine can still be heard. After two albums in as many years, and a quick world tour in between, the alt-pop band (who share management with One Direction) sound programmed to ooze adolescence until the last drop of Lynx Africa runs dry.

There are signs of maturity, however, inspired by the pristine punk of Fall Out Boy and Good Charlotte (Joel and Benji Madden certainly make their co-writing presence known), while Jet Black Heart and Waste the Night (which features a spindly riff that edges close to the Cure’s Friday I’m in Love) are masterfully moody. If only they’d quit capitalising on outsiders: “We are the kings and the queens of the new broken scene,” goes the My Chemical Romance-aping She’s Kinda Hot, an anthem for freaks and geeks played by the most popular boys in school.